Hobart and William Smith Colleges

20 August 2026 Dahouda Publishes on Aimé Césaire, America, and Black Consciousness

Dahouda explores Césaire’s engagement with the Harlem Renaissance and representations of race, identity and Black consciousness.

An article by Professor of French, Francophone, and Italian Studies Kanaté Dahouda was recently published in Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, Volume 30, 2026, Issue 4, “America in French / L’Amérique en français.”

Titled “Aimé Césaire, l’Amérique et la conscience noire” (“Aimé Césaire, America, and Black Consciousness”), the article explores the multifaceted relationship between the renowned French Caribbean writer Aimé Césaire and the United States, with particular attention to his intellectual and ideological dialogues with African American writers of the Harlem Renaissance, including Sterling Brown, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes and Claude McKay. Dahouda examines Césaire’s interest in these writers, the reception of his work in the United States, and the ways in which his writings portray America as a complex site of racial tensions, Black consciousness, evolving identities and social transformations.

Dahouda is a scholar of French and Francophone literatures and cultures and a longstanding member of the Department of French, Francophone, and Italian Studies at Hobart and William Smith. His research spans diaspora, exile, memory, identity, migration and postcolonial studies, with a particular focus on Francophone Africa, the Caribbean, Québec, and representations of America in French and Francophone literary and cultural imaginaries.